Milton Keynes City Council has received a positive judgement in its first ever inspection under the Government’s tough new social housing consumer standards, the TI&A Standard (Transparency, Influence and Accountability) introduced in 2024.
The City Council is the city's largest landlord with around 11,000 homes. The Regulator of Social Housing carries out inspections of large landlords at least every four years.
Following the rigorous inspection, the Council has been given a 'C2' rating by the Regulator of Social Housing. This shows the Council is broadly compliant with consumer standards, with some areas for improvement, and puts it in the top half of all councils inspected.
The consumer standards inspections cover four areas:
- Safety and quality
- Tenancy
- Neighbourhood and community
- Transparency, influence and accountability.
The regulator looked at whether homes are safe and decent, and services are effective, and talked to local tenants as part of the assessment.
They allocate councils grades from C1 to C4. More than half of all councils assessed so far (44 out of 83) have received a C3 or C4 grade, indicating serious or very serious failings. Only 10 councils have achieved the top C1 rating.
Tenants interviewed described the council as a “proactive” landlord and inspectors also heard 99% of routine repairs are attended on time.
A key area identified for improvement was the council’s need to conclude physical checks of all homes, known as a stock condition survey. This work began last year, and almost half of the council’s 11,000 homes are up to date so far.
“We are pleased to have been recognised as broadly complaint with the consumer standards. We have invested a huge amount of time and effort over the last few years to become a better landlord, including introducing an improved repairs and maintenance service. We know we have more to do, and our committed and dedicated team remain on track to make more progress in line with the findings from the inspection.
“I’d like to thank our tenants and our team for their involvement in the inspection, as well as the Regulator for their positive and balanced judgement."